The Desert Tribe people had not explained anything. After seeing how ferocious you were, their first reaction had been shock, followed by a hurried retreat back into the tribe.
You strolled leisurely into this tribe, whose style was both crude and simple. Its outer perimeter was enclosed by fences woven from some kind of wood and animal bones, though the gates stood open during the daytime.
Before you had even finished taking in the tribe's customs and scenery, the tribal warriors who had hurled spears at you returned, bringing along a towering, muscular... muscular woman.
She stood nearly two meters tall, with arms thicker than an ordinary man's thighs. Her features were fierce and bold. If not for her pectorals, so developed they looked almost grotesque, you truly would not have been able to tell her gender.
The muscular woman held a spiked mace. From head to handle, it measured roughly a meter long, made entirely of hard stone. The mace head was carved with dense stone spikes, and its weight alone was probably no less than one hundred and fifty jin.
Upon seeing you, the muscular woman did not fight at once. Instead, she rattled off a string of incomprehensible words. Seeing that you did not understand, she tilted her head, finding it boring, then swung her mace at you. The hard stone mace ripped through the air with hissing shrieks.
With your eyesight, you could tell this blow was immensely powerful, carrying the force of two thousand, perhaps even three thousand jin. Very few Second-rate Martial Artists could withstand it, and even First-rate Martial Artists before reaching Vital Energy Infused into Bone would rarely choose to take it head-on.
But you were a Martial Master, with a top-tier Foundation—a Martial Master at the stage of Muscles and Bones Ringing in Harmony.
As Force Qi surged forth, not only could you block this strike, but your weapon had already changed from the Mysterious Iron Saber to the Frost Bright Saber. The blade reversed from pitch-black to silver-white as you swung upward, slashing into the descending spiked mace!
With a thunderous boom that shook the ground, a crack sounded from the muscular woman's hand. Her fingers twisted and bent backward into a ruined shape, while the mace flew from her grip, sailing dozens of meters away. Only then did an old man come hurrying over from afar, shouting for them to stop in clumsy Three Kingdoms Language and the tribal tongue.
Yet when he arrived nearby, he stared in dumbstruck disbelief. The one at a disadvantage—being utterly crushed—was actually the tribe's bravest warrior, Akachi, who could fight a dozen warriors alone.
The tribal people did not need the old man to tell them to stop. They were already too terrified to step forward. Whether to stop or not was something you had to consider.
The old man hurriedly apologized to you. He was the witch doctor of the "Snake Fang" tribe—though he knew no witchcraft or spells, merely possessed greater knowledge and knew how to prepare all sorts of folk remedies—and he was proficient in Three Kingdoms Language.
The old man said the conflict had been entirely accidental. Those young people had mistaken you for one of the Grassland People from the west. Only he had found something wrong after hearing their description, and hurried over just in time to recognize that you came from the east: that mysterious, powerful land where Martial Arts flourished.
From the old man, you learned how they viewed the world. This desert was the center of the world, home to hundreds of tribes, and the "Snake Fang" tribe was considered one that had ventured quite deep into the desert.
Travel west for a month—by your estimate, more than a thousand li—and one would reach the grasslands. The nomadic tribes of the grasslands and the Desert Tribes were enemies for generations. No one could trace the origin of their feud anymore. In short, the Desert Tribes wanted to charge into the grasslands, seize territory and water sources, while the nomadic tribes wanted to wipe out the desert people entirely.
Just now, the young people of the "Snake Fang" tribe had taken your unfamiliar features for those of a Grassland Person who had infiltrated deep into the Great Desert, so they attacked at once. But as a witch doctor, he knew that if one kept heading east through the Great Desert, delving ever deeper, and crossed the fury of the sandstorms, there existed a place beyond imagination!
The strong people of that place were simply inconceivable. They could easily obtain "secret arts"—that was, Martial Arts manuals. Powerful warriors from the desert and grassland tribes who traveled east would only count as "Second-Rate" or "First-Rate," and above them existed three or four entire higher levels.
Though ordinary people still existed in the eastern lands, every Easterner who could cross the Great Desert and arrive here was a powerful figure. That was why the old witch doctor had rushed over... but he had never expected you to be strong enough to crush the female warrior Akachi.
As the saying went, no friendship without a fight. At the apology feast held by the old witch doctor and the tribal chief, you said you would let their earlier offense pass and forgive them once. There was no need to become mortal enemies with the natives the moment you arrived.
You began asking the old witch doctor about this place—he was the only one who could communicate with you. You called yourself a traveler, and after some conversation, he was willing to trade the tribe's most precious map, medical knowledge, and other things for one item from you.
Curious what he wanted, you discovered that the old witch doctor only needed a "secret art"—an orthodox martial art manual. Among the many desert tribes, secret arts were extremely sacred and difficult to obtain!
For example, in their "Snake Fang" tribe, only their foremost warrior, the muscular woman Akachi, could travel to a larger tribe and undergo a sacred baptism ritual, swearing loyalty with her soul, before she was qualified to learn a secret art.
Yun Shou: "When the refugees from the Three Kingdoms fled here en masse a year later, wouldn't you lose it?"
You fell silent for a moment. That female warrior, whose combat strength rivaled that of a top Second-rate Martial Artist, had never practiced martial arts? She did not even possess Internal Force? It seemed she was also a genius with an unusual martial constitution, similar to one with Dragon Elephant Strength. Hers was simply one or two grades weaker, something like Iron Bones Steel Tendons.
Such constitutions began out ten, even dozens of times stronger than ordinary people, but that was an addition. Their constitution was +10, not ×10. Their Foundation was usually only two or three times that of ordinary people, and as their Martial Cultivation rose, the gap between them and martial artists of the same level would only grow smaller...
Take this muscular woman. If her Foundation was a notch weaker than yours, then while both of you were ordinary people, your more than double Foundation would still see you instantly defeated by her. But if both of you became Martial Masters, she would merely be able to suppress you. At the Grandmaster level, you would be evenly matched, and afterward, your advantage would only continue to grow.
Under the witch doctor's eager gaze, you pondered for a moment before giving him the common martial art known as the Iron Body Technique. Though it was widespread in the Three Kingdoms, it was actually a fairly strong martial art, comprehensive in effect and without obvious flaws. Its only problem was that its "numbers" were a little low.
When he heard that you had authorized the Iron Body Technique for the "Snake Fang" tribe to use freely, rather than allowing only one or two people to cultivate it, the witch doctor immediately dropped to his knees and performed a grand bow.
The tribal chief beside him leaped up and angrily rebuked the witch doctor, cursing him for paying such respects to an outsider. It was too humiliating for the tribe, as if their tribe were worth nothing.
Witch Doctor: "This and that, such and such."
There was one more person performing a grand bow.
Expressionlessly, you watched passing tribal elders and others repeat the cycle of "anger—doubt—understanding—joining in." Before long, the witch doctor became afraid that news of their "unrestricted secret art" would spread. He apologized to you profusely, saying they could not bow to you for now. But after returning indoors, they would each secretly worship you.
You could not help marveling at how high this tribe's honesty stat was. If you had said, "The Iron Body Technique can only be practiced by one of you," they would probably truly have allowed only the tribe's strongest warrior to practice it—and there was a very good chance that person would take the Iron Body Technique into the grave.
At most, they might exploit a loophole: only one person from each generation could practice it, but two people could be taught the martial art. Once one died or became crippled, the other could begin practicing, then find another "reserve member" and tell them the full manual... "They're too simple and honest!"
Before you continue